


take a breath

by captainhurricane



Category: The Pacific - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 22:16:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainhurricane/pseuds/captainhurricane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>hell is empty and all the devils are here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	take a breath

**Author's Note:**

> set in that moment when Sledge and Snafu find the dead woman and her wailing baby.

What use is the smell of fresh air in here where such a thing is like some dream you dream up when you’re young and naive and the world hasn’t gone to shit- yeah, nothing, none of that’s worth nothing. Your ma calling your name and smiling as you come running because her cooking was always that one thing that your world coiled around when you were young and naive and you were just a boy

The stench in here has curled around your bones already, the glassy eyes of the bodies (and bodies and bodies and bodies) stare at you in your nightmares that you sleep through without sound and wake up feeling like you’re already dead. Sledge, hey, Sledgehammer- it’s Snafu and that lazy drawl of his, this time tinged with wonder and sadness that Snafu has done everything to squash because yeah, let’s add sadness to the list of things that aren’t worth shit in a world like this anymore. A world where the stench of decay is stuck onto your skin, where the sound of laughter is strained and awful and everything is dull gray and muddy and the only splash of colour are Snafu’s haunted eyes.

Hey, Sledgehammer, hey- Snafu gets that look sometime, like he had woken up from a dream and realized that maybe all of this will end up sometime and they will all get to wear clean clothes and sleep on real beds and not have to walk like dead men walking and then Snafu snaps back and grins a grin that doesn’t belong on the face of someone still alive. You lick your dry lips and raise your gun and don’t forget for a single second that the cold air on your neck just might be the Grim Reaper himself. You and Snafu stand and stare at the crying baby and wonder the same thing that maybe, just maybe- you raise your gun but Snafu’s hard edges soften, just for a second and there is a sigh like someone breathing for a first time.’


End file.
